Investigation Underway

The blaring proximity alarm rang in my ear; it wasn’t uncommon, but it caught me off guard this time. Empireum Station was one of my more frequent stops, and my autopilot should have engaged. My eyes didn’t adjust immediately, but I could tell the disinfectant mist still hung in the stasis bay from the pungent odor punching my nostrils.

My pod only partially opened, which wasn’t a surprise. I didn’t often turn my ship in for routine maintenance and tended to overlook wear and tear. The Veridian class jump ship was reliable, but addon features like the stasis pods and ftl boosters were known to bug out when not routinely checked and repaired.

The numbness in my fingers lingered, but the situation couldn’t wait. So I pried the door open and got started. The cool, wet mist lingering in the crew quarters sent goosebumps up my arms and caused a shiver to run down my spine. A common feeling when leaving the warmth of the fluid chamber, but an uncomfortable one, to say the least, and one I never got used to.

I struggled to gain my footing, and after a few minutes of coaxing my wobbly legs, I landed in my chair. With the pleasantries of hibernation out of the way, I prepared to perform a manual docking sequence. While the thrusters warmed up, I opened comms.

Dust covered my console, and after a pass with my trusty console rag, it looked as good as new. With a press, I heard the feedback of the comms, but no voice on the other end. I swapped between channels and back to the Galactic Republic standard frequency. All that came through was static. Using the automated system, I requested permission to perform emergency docking.

The station’s system computer didn’t respond. With a station the size of Empireum, it should have been the only red flag I needed to back away, but I’ve been known to overlook those on the best of days.

“Uva, are you powered up yet?”

My holo-disc turned on, and Uva stood there in all her glory. I designed her after my first wife and the curves that made me fall for that woman. Not sure why I was on the verge of getting married for the third time, deep space isn’t a place to make relationships work. Guess I’m a fool that way and a bit of a romantic.

“Yes, sir, is there anything I can do?” Uva asked.

“Can you scan Empireum Station? I can’t seem to get anyone on comms.”

The holo-disc dimmed, and a burst of light cascaded across the dilapidated hull of the space station. Even after years on the job, not once have I seen a station broken down in such a way, with pieces of the hull missing, and the medical pod being reduced to a gaping hole bleeding atmosphere. It beat all I had ever seen.

“I am picking up no signs of life, and auxiliary power is activated.” After a few beeps, she appeared back on the holo-disc. “Would you like for me to access their systems and poke around?”

“No, I need you to operate the emergency docking arm while I line things up? after we will start the standard process.”

Even if this wasn’t my jurisdiction, both the Empireum corporation and IG command would drag me into this one way or another, so I just jumped right in to save time.

“Uva, open an all-frequency broadcast.”

“Done, sir,” Uva said.

“This is Jurister Marcos Flynn, under authority of IG command, I declare Empireum Station under emergency order. All ships divert to Maer Proxima for services. Secondary request, Jurister number eighteen thirty-five. Comms, dead. Station, derelict. Beginning investigation, will update with situation report once information is gathered.”

I should have waited until IG command responded or just walked away, but when you’ve worked the rim as long as I have, you just kind of jump in and worry about everything else later.

Like clockwork, the food processor kicked on and spat out my favorite. An almost chocolate protein shake, Interna Galos mandated nutrient mixture. I would rather eat superheated plasma, but the rules are the rules after all.

I’d choke down my breakfast as soon as I had a handle on the situation. It’s not every day you find a derelict station floating off Empireum Prime, and even less likely for the Alpha Centauri fueling depot to be abandoned.

The normal checks came back clean, no signs of attack other than the med pod, but it appeared to be from an interior explosion. I accounted for each piece of debris, and that’s where things started to look suspicious. The scoring on the station resembled the older prewar stuff, like it had aged rapidly. Four months of hibernation since my last visit wasn’t long enough for this type of breakdown.

Another piece that itched the wrong way, all of the escape pods and drop ships were still in normal docking position, and the array didn’t send out any warning signals. Things didn’t add up, and the fact that another Jurister’s ship sat two ports down from mine raised all the red flags.

One small bit that should have raised more concern right away was that the planet’s moons were missing from orbit. Sadly, that is in the past, and here we sit, stuck in this moment.

Uva took over the docking arm. I slowed our approach and matched the rotation of the station. Like we had done a dozen times, we latched on and allowed the station to take the lead. Common procedure would come into play, and I’d wait for assistance before leaving my vessel, but I wanted to get back to the Core, and this was a hurdle, to put it mildly.

After all atmospheric checks were done and my grav-boots were enabled, I entered the pre-entry chamber.

My first task was simple: find out why the main power was disabled and work my way toward getting things up and running. With no life signs, it would be a short walk down the corridor to the maintenance kiosk to input my access and wait for the readout. I figured it was nothing more than an anomaly, and I’d have the logs to tell the tale. Probably some solar burst or a rogue Thalick pirate attack caused the issue. Seen it enough times to walk in blind, and that was my first mistake.

The pre-entry door opened to a darkened chamber. Objects floated in the room, undisturbed yet decayed. Within the bay, I found part of the reason for the void of life signs, a pile of bones, human and other, was stacked in front of the station bulkhead door. Many were broken, and in the mass of skeletons, not a single skull remained attached.

This meant the investigation became elevated: “Uva, activate weapons assignment Omega.”

From the open exit bay, a plasma rifle and pistol extended from the secure hanger.

“Time to go to work, Uva. Detach from the vessel and move to mission safe distance.”

Before my original task could be handled, another arose. I needed to breach a fourteen-inch-thick bulkhead and recover all relevant data on the deceased. My plasma weapons were good for destroying organic matter, just not designed to cut metal.

Until I needed to get through the door, I set my sights on examining the remains for cause and estimated time of death. My data pad linked up to my ship, and I started scanning. At first glance, I noticed mostly human remains, with Itherans mixed in. Of the nearly fifty bodies, I only found two without plasma scorch marks. Their remains were deformed; either pressure or an extreme event could explain the degree of damage and spread of bone fragments.

It didn’t take long for the results on time of death to come back, and to say I was shocked was an understatement.

“Sir, these readings can’t be real,” Uva said.

I stepped closer to the door, “What are we looking at? I feel like a Sithid got on board.” I leaned toward the window and watched my ship float among the debris.

The Sithid were the one variable I didn’t want to deal with. My armor and weapons were capable of handling even the most stubborn infestation, but seeing what they do to reproduce caused me to wish for any other outcome. Knowing isn’t often the best policy in deep space.

“The readings are impossible, sir, those remains are more than seven centuries old,” Uva said.

With her statement, my blood ran cold. Only two things in the known universe had the capability of causing this type of decay in a short time frame. I ruled out the Galerian temporal wave device, since the last one destroyed Sol Prime, and no more were in existence. It left one thing, something worse than a Sithid infestation.

“Uva, scan for Solarsect nest structures. Switching to cleanup mode, let me know when the results are back. Time to make a mess.”

It was likely that some of the residents were still alive; the scanner can only detect life signs outside of a sealed containment zone. I set my sights on the door and the task of getting through to the other side.

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